gutter

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɡʌt.ə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈɡʌt.ɚ/, /ˈɡʌɾ.ɚ/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈɡat.ə/, /ˈɡaɾ.ə/
• Rhymes: -ʌtə(ɹ)

From Middle English gutter, guttur, goter, from Anglo-Norman guttere, from Old French goutiere (French gouttière), ultimately from Latin gutta (“drop”).

gutter (plural gutters)

1. A prepared channel in a surface, especially at the side of a road adjacent to a curb, intended for the drainage of water.
   • 1836, Charles F. Partington, “Paris”, in The British Cyclopaedia of Literature, History, Geography, Law and Politics‎^[1], page 202:

     They a not so clean as they might be, since the water [is] carried off by only one gutter, in the centre of t[he] street

   • 1892, Oscar Wilde, “Act III”, in Lady Windermere's Fan […] ‎^[2]:

     Lord Darlington. No, we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

2. A ditch along the side of a road.
   • 1902, Massachusetts Highway Commission, Annual Report of the Massachusetts Highway Commission, volume 9:

     In nearly all of the towns the gutters are filled with vegetation, or have been neglected for so long a time that the roadway becomes its own drainage bed.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 7, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     ‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared. […]’

   • 2006, Henry Clark, Trophy Boy‎^[3], page 122:

     As Mike parked the vehicle, its right wheels sank into an unpaved gutter gradually worn irregular and deep by the rush of rainwater flowing down the street.

   • 2008, Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns‎^[4]:

     Gutters separated the sidewalk from the road on both sides and flowed with muddy water.

   • 2011, Judith Duncan, Murphy's Child‎^[5]:

     Meltwater gathered in the icy ruts of the unpaved road, the pressure wearing thin channels in the packed snow. Along the gutter the rivulets of spring runoff cut a course to the storm sewer

3. A duct or channel beneath the eaves of a building to carry rain water; eavestrough.

   The gutters must be cleared of leaves a few times a year.

4. (bowling) A groove down the sides of a bowling lane.

   You can decide to use the bumpers to avoid the ball going down the gutter every time.

5. A large groove (commonly behind animals) in a barn used for the collection and removal of animal excrement.
6. Any narrow channel or groove, such as one formed by erosion in the vent of a gun from repeated firing.
7. (typography) A space between printed columns of text.
8. (printing) One of a number of pieces of wood or metal, grooved in the centre, used to separate the pages of type in a form.
9. (philately) An unprinted space between rows of stamps.
10. (British) A drainage channel.
11. The notional locus of things, acts, or events that are distasteful, ill-bred, or morally questionable.
    • 1996, Julian Schnabel, Basquiat, spoken by Annina Nosei (Elina Löwensohn), United States: Eleventh Street Productions; distributed by Miramax Films:

      Nosei (Löwensohn): This is Tom and Cynthia Kruger. / Jean-Michel Basquiat (Jeffrey Wright) I heard. / Nosei: This is Jean-Michel Basquiat. / Tom Kruger (Chuck Pfeiffer): Hi. / Nosei: You've seen the SAMO graffiti everywhere – that's his. This is the true voice of the gutter.

12. (figuratively) A low, vulgar state.

    Get your mind out of the gutter.

    What kind of gutter language is that? I ought to wash your mouth out with soap.

13. (comics) The spaces between comic book panels.

• Sranan Tongo: gotro

• gutter on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• gout

gutter (third-person singular simple present gutters, present participle guttering, simple past and past participle guttered)

1. To flow or stream; to form gutters. [from late 14th c.]
2. (of a candle) To melt away by having the molten wax run down along the side of the candle. [from early 18th c.]

   Synonym: cloam

3. (of a small flame, or poetically, of eyes) To flicker as if about to be extinguished.
   • 2020 November 16, Emma Castle, Devastate Me: A Next-door Neighbor Romance, Lauren Smith, →ISBN:

     The light in his eyes guttered like a candle in a mighty wind and finally went out. She had no time to grieve […]

   • 2023 October 10, Clare Gilmore, Love Interest: A Novel, St. Martin's Griffin, →ISBN:

     Alex's eyes gutter, and his face goes cold. He stands there mutely through my apology, stiff and frozen. I want to touch him, but I'm scared he'll flinch away.

4. (transitive) To send (a bowling ball) into the gutter, not hitting any pins.
5. (transitive) To supply with a gutter or gutters.
   • 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     A narrow flooring, guttered, walled, and tiled.

6. (transitive) To cut or form into small longitudinal hollows; to channel.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     The gutter'd-Rockes, and Congregated Sands,

7. (transitive, uncommon) To make worse; to show emphasis that something has gotten worse.

   The students' performance guttered after the school event.

   The patient's state would soon gutter.

• gutter out

From gut +‎ -er.

gutter (plural gutters)

1. One who or that which guts.
   • 1921, Bernie Babcock, The Coming of the King, page 151:

     A Galilean Rabbi? When did this Province of diggers in dirt and gutters of fish send forth Rabbis? Thou makest a jest.

   • 2013, Don Keith, Shelley Stewart, Mattie C.'s Boy: The Shelley Stewart Story, page 34:

     An old, rusty coat hanger made a rudimentary fish-gutter.

gutter c

1. indefinite plural of gut

gutter m

1. indefinite plural of gutt